Hollywood Cinematography - Essay Example

?Hollywood Cinema Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 The Social Importance of Cinema Going to Women during the ical Period of Hollywood 4 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction Cinema since the time of its inception into the faculty of visual arts not only did influence the cultural paradigm of a nation, but also did influence the socio-cultural and socio-economic realm of a nation as an enterprise and the amount of resources engaged with it. Hollywood as a seat of film industry, and being the world’s largest one did influence the socio-cultural and socio-economic activity of America right from its classical period. Cinema largely affected the women folk of the nation. Right from their lifestyle to stylistics, everything started being influenced by Hollywood. One can easily find out the traces of Hollywood in the curtains of the drawing room to the bed linens and night gowns of that period. In fact, cinema had its most enchanting influence on the people of America during its earliest years. Classical Period of Hollywood cinema saw many technical reformations in cinema for the first time, but at the same plane it also received a social review or reception at an intense positive scale. It involved the women equally into the industry and her contribution to cinema making and cinema watching went almost parallel to men. For all these kind of remarkable growth in the cinema, which was going to make it more and more sustainable over the years, the age is often quoted in the terminology of film history as the ‘golden age of cinema’. Therefore, The Regents of the University of California to comprehend the social importance of cinema going for women during the classical period of Hollywood cinema, it is quintessential to understand the nature and background of the era and cinema made during the period along with a full length study of sociological methodology implemented in involving a great extent of the society into the industry of cinema making. This can be assumed by close reading of couple of cinemas produced during the era. The Social Importance of Cinema Going to Women during the Classical Period of Hollywood As discussed in the introductory part of the essay, to comprehend the thesis pertaining to the sociological implication of women getting more and more involved with cinema during the classical period of Hollywood, it is important to have a brief and a close grasp at the classical period of Hollywood cinema. In the film history, classical period refers strictly to a style of cinema that involved a particular visual and audio mode in production of cinema during the period between 1927 and 1963 in the American film industry. A very unique and identifiable style evolved in the cinema during this period and that style actually came to be known as classical Hollywood style. Developed on the principle of continuity editing which is also known as “invisible style”, the American cinema started gaining more popular grounds amid the masses. In a modernist or postmodernist works, visual arts did witness the call of attention between the camera and the sound recording. In the classical periods, these two main facets of the cinema making were placed completely at peace with each other making the presentation smoother and eloquent. It would be very unjustified action, if the cinemas produced during the classical period of Hollywood are judged under the light of feminist film theories. The movement of feminism in the cultural arena of America gained its strong grounds during 70s and the transition of silent cinema into a complete audio-visual mode was over by 60s itself. Yet, to trace the importance of women to cinema going during the classical period of Hollywood cinema, a thorough study of feminist interpretation of the cinema would definitely guide to the platform upon which the social importance of women to cinema going could be traced naturally. Theoretical film criticism developed on the matrix of feminist politics and feminist theory and an approach to cinema analysis of these grounds can be a determining factor for inferring the importance of women in cinema going sociologically. Therefore, a feminist approach to the societal cause of women viewing and joining cinema increasingly during its most transitive phase has its roots in the feministic approach towards cinema and cinema viewing. The classical period in Hollywood roughly can be alienated into three kinds of themes which evolved out of different socio-cultural activities taking place at the moment. Actually, World War II had contributed a lot of changes in the political and cultural front of America. Cinemas in the Classical period of Hollywood were divided neatly into three segments making the devastating World War II as its pivot of transition. There were cinemas those were made before World War II and were based on the traditional family dramas, then there was the outbreak of the war and it compelled the society to look upon the family and its values in a different light. A stark sense of dystopia engulfed the entire society consequently giving birth to one of the finest genres of American films upon which the industry was going to thrive for many coming decades. It was mostly the genre of film noir that developed in the classical period of Hollywood during the war years and few more years after the war ceased1. Then came the year, 1946 when Hollywood had witnessed its most successful commercial year and a steady inclusion of the overseas market at the same time. By the end of the 1945, soldiers had started returning back to their homes reuniting with their families. People after getting back their father, son, husband and brother back at their family started rejoicing most and statistics say that Americans started visiting theatres and local cinemas five to six times every week. It was the time when American people started watching cinema not because they wanted to escape from life, but because they wanted more and more to relate with the realities of war they have passed through. Therefore, the directors also started picking up action dramas and war films more than the perfect mundane family entertainment dramas2. However, most importantly, in all these kind of cinema which the golden age of Hollywood yielded definitely posited women at a very important position, changing and transforming her role and projection depending upon the changes in the themes of the films over the years. Women have been described as the projection of the perspective, American society and culture is having towards, the concept of family, society and children. Before the years of the outbreak of World War II, cinemas were mostly family oriented. American love for family life and its depiction as the world’s most safe place had its growing grounds in cinema. With happy endings and family as the cure-all solution for any and every kind of trouble outside, women were seen in more conventional roles like mother, daughter, beloved or wife. It was during the year 1939, that one of the most romantic, sensuous and blockbuster American drama bearing the title, ‘Gone With the Wind’ appeared before its audience. Victor Fleming, the director of the film canvassed this epoch making romantic and historical romance where the lovely Scarlett O’ Hara played by Vivien Leigh makes a mad pursuit to get the love of her life Ashley Wilkes played by Leslie Howard. Keeping the American Civil war and the Era of Reconstruction as a foreboding backdrop, the story of the film is narrated from the perception of the white Southerners. With little distinction at that age regarding the romance and marital rape or forced sex, American audience did for the first time witness extra–marital affair with such intensity. Along with this, the film had definite sexual agenda and the behaviour of Scarlet towards other females in the film, Rhett’s display of romance in a overt way and Scarlet’s chase for Ashley all were very much indicative of a story that could be served hot with cookies and burning cup of tea over the living room gossips. Nevertheless, notably the end of the film was again set on a morale which compels the untameable Scarlett to fall back to her married husband confessing that she has only and truly loved Rhett Butler. On the other hand, Ashley breaks into tears when he hears that Melanie is requesting Scarlet to look after Ashley in her deathbed. In a very subtle way, not being an iconoclast the film, ‘Gone With the Wind’ falling into the category of American traditional drama before the outbreak of the war almost in a didactic way teaches the American women to love her husband and family as at the end of the day, it is the most valuable and safest shelter against all odds of life. Therefore, in this way, American women moved to cinema and their suppress lust for sensuousness were also consciously being tittered but with a strong lesson at the end, which indicates them that being imp for a while does not harm, but at the end of the day women inside the house with all compromises, sacrifices and negotiations should play the pivotal role of unifying the family and its values3. With the outbreak of war, America’s cultural endorsement of family value which was already a proven profitable formula for the film-makers before the war was not working anymore. The need of the hour demanded something different. The film-makers were also pondering for some different alternatives in narrative style. Through this turmoil and experimental era evolved a genre in Hollywood cinema which completely changed the dimension of theme, character, setting and story line in Hollywood. Film noir also changed and twisted the role of American women in the film completely. The scepticism towards family and all those values which bind the society and family together is expressed through the women of the film noirs. With little exceptions, noir films generally segregate the women characters into three kinds, first, the femme fatal; the image of the woman is that of an ambitious, independent and wants to break free through every commitment of relations in life. The second type is the nurturing women. This type is generally victim in the story depicted as dull without much sharp features and at the end of the film mostly unattainable. The third type is the “marrying type”. This kind generally threatens the hero to marry and get involved into a traditional role of a father or a husband. Whatever the types may be, the women in the noir films of Hollywood have always undermined the conventional family images of American society. As a matter of fact, this iconoclastic image of women so much progressive and free from the shackles of traditional family life and also affirming it attracted American women and men frustrated from the horrors of war and pang of separation from their beloved ones who were standing between life and death at the war front4. “The Maltese Falcon” a Warner Brothers Production that appeared before its audiences in the year 1941, captivated Mary Astor as the femme fatale of the San Francisco based investigator Sam Spade played by Humphrey Bogart. The role of O’Shaughnessy is also very noteworthy because she breaks the conventional portrait of a lover and a beloved as Spade turns his beloved over to police leaving her in complete bafflement along with the audience. American women got attracted to these femme fatal women; good or bad it motivated them more and more to defend themselves and stand upright for their rights and liberty. Women were free and progressive pitted beyond the role of simply loving her husband and rearing up her children. This allured the audience as they got to see something novel and innovative. At the same time, the femme fatal of the film noirs of classical Hollywood cinema did bring impact upon the women who had started working and trying to be independent in the absence of the male members in the house largely5. After the war, the gradual ground gaining of post-war issues suddenly received a momentum. The onset of the Cold War along with the documentaries those were made during the war changed the nature of Hollywood completely. There was a very little scope left for the middle-class values and a consequential rise of the socially alarmed and conscious cinema started gaining firm affirmations and acceptance. The studio production became down sized and a neo-realist movement from Italy considerably influenced the directors to present rebellious movies whose preference were shooting at the real locations. They started targeting everyday common people at their background pressed with real life day-to-day problems rather than grand indoors and decors of bourgeois living rooms. They raised a show departed from the technical splendour and hinged more on mundane language and behaviour. Naturally, to keep pace with all these feature of the cinema, the directors had to present their characters-heroes and heroines in a new light. The role of women in the cinemas produced after World War II also changed to a great extent. A close introspection to the film, “A Letter From an Unknown Woman” released in the year 1948 and directed by Max Ophuls starring Louis Jourdan, Joan Fontaine, Marcel Journet and Mady Christians shall launch the audience into a striking inference regarding the role reversal and dynamism for the role of a women assigned in the post war movies. A strong presence of emotional quotient is noticed in the letter of Lisa, whose presence pervades the entire film, though she dwindles back and forth from flashback only and his onetime crush and beloved Stefan hardly fails to recognize her. With increasing stress on the grey matters and projecting beauty with bounty heart and bright brains, more women became engrossed and engaging in the cinema of Hollywood after the World War II6;7. Conclusion Cinema over the years have faced transition but irrespective of any gender, class or age Hollywood cinema have been able to enchant and engross millions of spectator across the globe. It is evident that the role of cinema into the life of women is far reaching. Once, who were captivated inside the four walls of their household, got their foremost chance of tasting liberty of thought process and a scope to gaze out to the world beyond the four walls of their house and watch the world with a new vision and perspective. References American Film Industry, ‘World War II, the US, and Classical Hollywood’, ‘Course Website’, , 2011 (accessed 07 May 2013). Hanson, H. Hollywood Heroines: Women in Film Noir and the Female Gothic Film. I.B.Tauris, United Kingdom, 2007. Library of Congress. ‘National Film Registry’, ‘National Film Preservation Board’, , 2011 (accessed 07 May 2013). Manchel, F. ‘Sink or Swim: Hollywood after World War II’, ‘The University of Vermont’, , 2000 (accessed 07 May 2013). Paludi, M. A. The Psychology of Love, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO, California, 2012. The Regents of the University of California, ‘No Place for a Woman: The Family in Film Noir’, ‘Introduction’, , 1999 (accessed 07 May 2013). True Classics. ‘Feminist Fridays: The Women of The Maltese Falcon’. ‘Home’. , 2011 (accessed 07 May 2013). Read More